Broome shire to sell staff housing to support Sanctuary Holiday Park and Key Worker Accommodation Village

The Shire of Broome will offload several staff housing properties to raise capital to purchase six key worker housing dwellings within the Sanctuary Holiday Park and Key Worker Accommodation Village.

Money from the sales will be reinvested by the shire to purchase six newly-built key worker dwellings within the proposed Sanctuary Holiday Park and Key Worker Accommodation Village, which shire officers said will help strengthen applications and lobbying efforts for additional funding for the project.

However, officers said the sale of the four properties would also depend on acquiring other funding required for the project.

Officers also recommended the shire proceed with an application to the Regional Housing Support Fund for a portion of the remaining funding required for the project, while continuing broader advocacy efforts.

The shire has already secured $7.68 million through the Infrastructure Development Fund for the key worker accommodation aspect of the project, however it is far short of the estimated $63.92m project cost outlined in the original business case prepared in 2022.

Shire officers also said updated cost estimates had increased since 2022, meaning the shire needs to obtain more than the $63.92m outlined in the original business case.

They recommended selling four properties reserved for shire workers already in its stock for an estimated $2.73m, which will go towards purchasing the six dwellings at the Sanctuary Park project.

They include a 4x2 house built in 2016, two 2x2 units built in 2014 and a 2x1 unit built in 1995.

As the motion to sell the staff housing came to council at the December meeting, Cr Jan Lewis raised concerns for those living in the staff housing.

“I have a clarification about the timing of how this will work,” she said.

“Can you assure me that people who are living currently in shire accommodation will not be rendered homeless . . . due to the timing of the sale and the building of the new houses?”

Shire of Broome infrastructure director Jeremy Hall confirmed those living in the dwellings would not be left out in the cold.

“The whole intent of the project . . . is to provide housing for our key staff,” he said.

“We will be able to do that through selling these houses with existing leases in place if necessary or transferring them to other properties while the new dwellings get built, hopefully at the Sanctuary Village, and then we can transition people into those dwellings.”

The motion to sell the shire properties and make an application to the Regional Housing Support Fund was passed.